“Looking back on our albums,” says Explosions in the Sky‘s Chris Hrasky, “Subtlety has not been our strong point.”
Since their first album, Explosions in the Sky’s talent or lack of subtlety hasn’t been questioned. This is the band whose demo tape was submitted to label Temporary Residence Limited with the note, “This totally fucking destroys.” The label picked them up after listening to half the tape. While the next eight years brought some grand compositions, intense live shows, and several soundtrack opportunities, things didn’t get complicated until now.
Explosions, an indie post-rock band from Austin, Texas whose work is characterized by vigorous, lyric-less compositions and harmonious guitar breakdowns, previously enjoyed success after placing songs on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack (they wrote the theme song) and One Tree Hill. More than four years after 2007’s All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, the band finally released a new album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, which had a remarkably more thoughtful sound.
The more complex sound began with the album’s difficult creation. Explosions abandoned their pattern of building records on live foundations and headed to the studio to lay the bare bones of the songs. In the studio, they bumbled through notes and struggled to find the right sound. Hrasky, the band’s drummer, poetically describes the record’s conception process as “sitting quietly in the practice space wondering what to sound like, in a constant state of low-level panic.”
In other words, Explosions in the Sky had writer’s block.
The Austin musicians found a cure among groves of pecan fields. They retreated to an isolated estate that borders Mexico owned by an eccentric and wealthy bachelor. The estate, in addition to having a lot of pecans, also contains a recording studio that had previously hosted the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
“The album finally started flowing,” says Hrasky. The band even elected to switch from live recordings to a studio-based foundation, which led them to add new percussionist Carlos Torres to the group. “We tried new things and created a dense album that’s less obvious in emotional content. The sound is more confusing in our ears.”
The difference is striking when new album compositions are compared to a song such as “Your Hand in Mine”, a track off of 2003’s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place. The sweet, light guitar notes and a quick drumbeat create the mood expected from the title—excitement and pureness—but it lacks the emotional and tonal complexity of Take Care, Take Care, Take Care’s tracks.
Even the titles are less obvious. For example, “Human Qualities,” a strong track with a drumbeat like the patter of dancing feet, doesn’t tell listeners exactly how they should feel about the music. The musicians restrain the noise until about seven minutes into the song, and then they explode into smashing drums and frantic guitar. When the song ends, listeners are left wondering what the hell just happened to that saccharine song and what Explosions wish to imply about humanity.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/28743490[/vimeo]
Tonight, Explosions in the Sky play Tipitina’s with Wye Oak opening. The show starts at 9 p.m. and is sold out.
